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Behind a browser product that runs smoothly and responds to requests that can be a bit "fastidious" from users, Back-end Developers working for hours, writing many code lines that are small but carry extremely important meanings. Creating the "heart" and "mind" of the product, they build up its foundation and constantly improve quality, and together, they promote the great mission with Cốc Cốc: Helping users access resources more easily in the digital world.

 

In the Ask a Senior #5, let’s meet Mr. Trung Kiên, the one who is often called by the nickname - Mr. Kenny. Before joining and becoming the Back-end team leader of the “Make in Vietnam” Browser, Mr. Kenny used to own an advertising start-up that competes with Google Adsense, and since he has been through many positions. If you are planning to become a Back-end Developer, then this sharing below is just might be the “golden key” to open your door!

 

 

Back-end Team Leader of Cốc Cốc and A thousand and One stories that you haven’t heard

 

To share about my work, being a Product Back-end Team Leader has so many duties:

 

• On one hand, I’m still a Software Engineer so I have to write code for the features of new projects.
• As a professional Leader, I also act as a consultant to other teams on tech expertise to help everyone make more qualified decisions. Simultaneously with the role of Leader, I also organize and allocate resources in the team reasonably to be able to produce products that both ensure quality and ensure deadline (being slow will affect other teams, being reprimanded by the boss, bring down the member’s spirits). For example, I’ll have to put the members in the right direction so that they can both promote their capacity and achieve high results in their work.
• The leader is also a mentor, so it takes time to guide the team members, makes technical presentations to bring more new knowledge to them (once a member shared with me that a year working here equals 3, 4 years of learning out there, so I'm happy that I can do that for them).
• In addition, it also helps members in the team to optimize their work performance, helps me manage training costs and time, bring more improvements to work, ... and the work of a Leader like me has ceased to stop: I have to always be careful, always creative and extremely careful.

 

For me, Cốc Cốc is the comfortable environment to be doing what I want, but of course, it's still within a framework :))) Maybe because I came up from a startup, I have never thought like I'm working for Cốc Cốc, but we are "owning" together, contributing to the overall success of Cốc Cốc products.

 

Another point that I also like about Cốc Cốc is in here, you’ll get to work with many talented people. For example, I’ve learned a lot from the Infrastructure & Support team, especially on debates, arguing with each other to the end. There are also many teams: Product Manager, Project Manager, Quality Assurance, Browser or Search Teams, HR, Marketing... and especially my team members: Those guys are all very talented.

 

 

The story about the Cốc Cốc Back-end Developers

 

At Cốc Cốc, daily work routine of a developer is… coffee, chatting and then lunch :)))

 

But I'm just kidding :))) Every day, the Developers will meet with the Product Manager team to receive the requirements, discuss to come up with a suitable solution. And then, they write the source code for those new features or products. When it is time to test those new features or products, the Developers will receive the bugs from the QA team, analyze and discuss whether it is a bug or a feature (I usually call it "fixing bugs by mouth" :-D ). Then there is the journey to fix bugs :roll: 

 

Besides, all the developers in Cốc Cốc, especially in the Product-BE team, will need to regularly cultivate new knowledge, read more documents, attend presentations organized by their Leader to gradually improve their performance and the performance of the product. I call it the residual value for the Developers themselves, and then they will put that surplus value back on the products they make, which means they can improve and the product also gets better.

 

But I have to mention that there are many big difficulties for a Developer at Cốc Cốc, and in other businesses in general:

 

1. Having to grasp the rapid change of technology: today's knowledge may be outdated tomorrow, some languages ​​and frameworks are popular today but a few years later are no longer available. Today's solutions are good, but tomorrow there will be better solutions, and if we can follow up the trend, it will help to improve the product a lot, so Developers must constantly learn (and that is also a culture of the Product-BE team at Cốc Cốc: Learning & Sharing)

 

2. Dealing with communication issues: it’s a difficulty, but no less of an important thing for a developer. This also has made up a rule in the Product-BE team:

 

Communication is more important than coding

Communication is very important, and in my opinion, it is more important than coding. Once you've successfully communicated, identified exactly what you need to do, and come to an agreement on a solution - that's thanks to smooth communication between individuals, and then coding will be a lot easier. But for the most part, developers are introverts, afraid to communicate or communicate ineffectively, so they often encounter the situation: They code the “super stuff” that no one needs. I used to be an introvert with communication problems, and it took a lot of practice to improve.

However, the members of the Product-BE team still overcome those difficulties and are ready to make a positive impact, and that is what we can see right away: new products (Cốc Cốc Points, Cốc Cốc Games, RungRinh,...), new features such as Safe-browsing, Vertical Search,... And the overall result is that the quality of the products is improved, the number of Daily Active Users is still increasing gradually, the number of new subscribers to the service like Cốc Cốc Accounts is increasing gradually, users are more satisfied with Cốc Cốc and Cốc Cốc has achieved more awards. (And hopefully, when things develop for the better, my team's salary will also increase 8-) )

 

 

The future for Back-end Developers and the useful sharings for all youngsters

 

To talk about the future of this industry, I don't predict, but often I plan for both directions: What if it's hotter? What do I do when the heat is reduced? But if I have to tell a prediction, I can say that the heat of information technology has never run out, it can only get hotter and hotter, and which technology segment takes the throne will attract the human resources there. And if we look further, there will come a time when machines will completely replace humans, both in programming and in many other professions.

 

In my contact with many youngsters, I also see that many of them are still quite confused between many options. Therefore, I only have one piece of advice is to clearly define an array of programming that you feel is suitable: back-end is okay, front-end is okay, blockchain is okay, full-stack is okay (although I don't highly recommend this direction for newcomers or even DevOps). As long as it suits you, don't think too much about which field has a higher salary because I can safely say that if you develop into an expert in an area, the salary for all positions is high. After you have chosen your favorite field, go online to find a clear roadmap for that segment (I often use this site to give out advice LINK). Once you have identified your favorite area, have a clear road map, then focus on learning and doing the real thing later on in that area: 3 years, 5 years and then you will become an expert in that field, and become a winner. Hunting for these positions. Remember don't “ the grass always looks greener on the other side of the fence”, doing as the front-end and seeing the back-end or blockchain has a higher salary and job-hopping, keep job-hopping, keep job-hopping, and it won't get you anywhere.

 

And to motivate you, I will quote a favorite quote from Steve Jobs:
“Stay hungry, Stay foolish”. Young people, just go wrong because this is a great time to be wrong, the price to pay now will be much smaller than later. But remember after each mistake, you learn a lesson, and make the mistake only once because too much is not good :)))) Wish you will always be hungry, always foolish to reach success (if you’re not successful, then you can grow as a person :-)  )

 

 

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Ask a Senior - The series Cốc Cốc “Seniors” share their expertise and direction of career development for youngsters, helping them to have more inspiration to build the career path up ahead.